GMC’s second electric pickup — after the Hummer EV pickup — will probably be called the GMC Sierra EV, but for now GMC is offering no details about it, like the name, though GMC has confirmed that it will be a “full-size pickup.”
This will presumably be GMC’s F-150 Lightning competitor, and so the thing to watch is range, yes, but also price, as the F-150 Lightning will start at a little less than $40,000, not bad for a world in which that is the average price of a new car, period. That, however, is for the barebones “commercial-oriented” F-150 Lightning, while the consumer-oriented F-150 Lightning XLT will start at $52,974. Which is a long way of saying that I would guess GMC will shoot for something at least in the low fifties; GMC isn’t commenting either way.
“No, no real surprises there… from a GMC point of view,” GMC global vice president Duncan Aldred said Monday, referring to the F-150 Lightning’s pricing. Other things that GMC didn’t talk about: specs, where the truck will be built, and when it will debut. Still, naturally, Aldred said that he was confident that GMC is just about ready to dominate the EV full-size truck space, according to CNBC.
“I’m very confident GMC will be a big winner in this space,” Duncan Aldred, global head of GMC, said Monday during a digital media event. Aldred said the vehicle is “pretty advanced” in its planning, however he declined to disclose timing of the vehicle.
I am not at all confident that, in general, pickup trucks are the best application of battery-electric powertrains, given how much towing range is likely to suffer. But GMC, Ford, Tesla, Chevy, and Ram are all doing electric trucks, so we’ll find out how wrong I am sooner or later.